Scooby Pinch Hits

Scooby Pinch Hits is the second half of the ninth episode of The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show and originally aired on October 29, 1983. Written by Jeff Segal and Alan Burnett, this episode features a ghostly baseball player returning from the grave!

Scooby Pinch Hits – Episode Review

The episode begins with Daphne at the Casey O’Riley Stadium thanking Coach Goober for allowing them the chance to work out with the Fairway Flounders. The Fairway Founders have a new star pitcher named Sally Star and Daphne is excited to interview her.

Coach Goober & Sally Star

Sally pitches some impressive balls at Scooby impressing Daphne. We soon meet Freddie who runs in with a flounder mascot outfit and we learn that he would love to be an assistant coach, however, Coach Goober won’t give him the time of the day (setting up motive).

The Ghost of Casey O’Riley soon shows up scaring nearly everyone away. The roaster’s coach (Reggie Rungout) comes by and heckles Coach Goober, calling his team a bunch of chickens (even though the team we see running off previously was wearing red, which is the colours of the Roosters). We also discover, after Scooby and Shaggy hide on top of a protective fence, that there is a projector that was casting the image of Casey O’Riley.

A real version (non-projected) of Casey O’Riley shows up and terrorizes Scooby and Shaggy for a few minutes.

Back on the practice field, Daphne tells the coach that the Ghost of Casey O’Riley is nothing but a hoax, however, Scrappy informs that the ghost may not be a hoax after all. The ghost then shows up and kidnaps Sally Star right before the game begins.

We then get a scene where the Flounders are afraid to play, so Shaggy hands Scooby a tray of Baseball Snacks and off Scooby goes to play. Scooby has some fun being the only player on the field and scores a point for the team. Meanwhile, in Freddy the Flounder’s mascot change room they find the tattered costume that the Ghost had been wearing.

While the Ghost of Casey O’Riley terrorizes Scooby and Shaggy and end up catching him, Daphne and Scrappy find Sally Star and lead her back to the field where she wins the game.

Daphne then unmasks the Ghost of Casey O’Riley and we learn that is the Rooster’s Coach, who used the Ghost to scare the Flounders off so his Roosters could win the game.

My Review

I give this one a 6 out of 10. It’s fun, but not very memorable. The Ghost of Casey O’Riley is very plain looking and not entirely spooky like the much superior looking Rambling Ghost from a few years earlier. And hey, I get that this decision was to make this series more kid memorable so the network could sell more happy meal commercials but a kid-friendly villain is going to lower my score every time.

Still, we get some funny scenes with the announcer and mascots, plus lots of side characters which are always fun to look at. Plus a real mystery and some red herrings going on, so I really don’t have much to complain about here.